


Sunshine

by Mochi (Mochifel)



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates, Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Blood, Eye Trauma, F/M, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I have no idea what I did thereeeeee, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Let me know if I forgot tags, M/M, Major Character Injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-23
Updated: 2017-02-23
Packaged: 2018-09-26 09:13:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9879338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mochifel/pseuds/Mochi
Summary: A petite-looking woman wearing a white coat closed the door behind herself, holding a clipboard under her arm. Two pigtails held a wild, blond mane together, a bright smile adorned her lips and her green eyes were shining when she did. She stepped closer to his bed, to his left, one hand reaching out to touch his face. “Sorry, it will be a bit bright now,” came as a warning when she took out a small flashlight and held his eye open, making him flinch. The small lady then pulled over a chair and took a seat.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This work is un-beta'd and I'm not a native speaker, please have mercy on me.

When Niles woke up there was a bright, blinding light and pain coursing through his right eye. He only heard faint voices through the daze. There seemed to be people who were asking him questions for which he had no answer for, mostly because he could barely make out any of the words. Everything was happening so fast, too fast, and it made his head spin. Only one thing left his lips and it was the only constant that he could grasp, a repeated chant.

 

“It hurts, it hurts, make it stop, I can’t see…!”

 

Then the world turned dark again.

 

Hours later the young boy woke up again, the pain was still present but it didn’t feel as persistent and overwhelming as it had before. Duller. Something about his sight was still off, but he couldn’t put a finger on it. His sides ached, his hands stung. As he looked around he saw white walls everywhere and an IV line attached to his arm, as well as bandages and band aids all over what he could see of his body. He had been tucked into a bed with sheets in the same shade of white as the walls. There was another bed in this room but it was empty.

 

Right. He had been beaten up, something he was used to. But this time there was blood, so much blood, a broken bottle and glass shards everywhere and he screamed as-!

 

“Thank goodness, you are up!”

 

Niles turned his head towards where the bright voice had come from. A petite-looking woman wearing a white coat closed the door behind herself, holding a clipboard under her arm. Two pigtails held a wild, blond mane together, a bright smile adorned her lips and her green eyes were shining when she did. She stepped closer to his bed, to his left, one hand reaching out to touch his face. “Sorry, it will be a bit bright now,” came as a warning when she took out a small flashlight and held his eye open, making him flinch. The small lady then pulled over a chair and took a seat. Niles couldn’t help but think that she looked smaller like this.

 

“I’m Doctor –, but you can call me Lissa.”

 

“…” A blue eye stared at her, not saying a word. Lissa kept looking at him, her smile still present on her face.

 

“Your name is Niles, right?” He still didn’t say a word, but this time he nodded at least. Better to just get over with this, then she will leave him alone. It was always like this. Adults acted like they cared and then he would be tossed away again. A problem child, that’s what they called him behind his back, each time when the police caught him and brought him back to his foster family.

 

“How do you feel?” Her pen clicked, ready to scribble down a few notes on her clipboard. Niles looked at his bandaged fingers. She saw what he looked like, that question was unnecessary.

 

“Like shit.” He glanced over at her as he said so, those green eyes had turned wide. She probably didn’t expect a boy at his age to use such words in front of an adult, a doctor on top of that. “That’s to be expected, you were in a really bad shape when you were brought in.” Now it was his turn to stare at her with a wide eye. Her answer came without missing a beat and she wasn’t done yet. “You have several broken ribs, as well as bruises and cuts all over your body and on your hands and a severe injury on your right eye.” At least she didn’t use words that he didn’t understand. So this is why his sight was so off.

 

He remembered it again at that moment. The broken bottle of vodka that had lunged at him after he had spoken up to his supposed guardian. His hands clenched the bed sheets and he bit the inside of his cheek, shivering violently. He didn’t want to go back there. He would rather die before he was forced to go back.

 

“… My eye…?” Niles couldn’t bring himself to ask further than that and stared at the ceiling. He couldn’t see the face the doctor made when she answered him.

 

“… Your eyeball will heal, but your sight will never come back.” She spoke calmly but there was a tint of sadness in her voice.

 

There was a long moment of silence. Maybe the doctor expected him to cry, but his tears never came.

 

Instead Niles had turned his head to look at her and opened his mouth to speak again. “… When do I have to go back?” Because that’s what would happen at the end. It’s what always would happen. But he has no intention of going back to that place and the doctor didn’t need to know that.

 

“I won’t allow you to go back there!” She spoke with a firm voice, frowning and her lower lip lightly sticking out, almost, _almost_ looking like she was pouting. Niles looked up at the ceiling again, chuckling dryly. “I don’t believe you. If not back there, then I’ll be sent to other people who are just as bad.” He knew that game. He had been thrown away by people since he was born. “What could _you_ change, doctor?” There was another moment of silence. It didn’t surprise him at all, it’s not the first time that he, an eleven-year-old, could outsmart an adult.

 

Except that he didn’t expect her to pop up in his field of vision, a self-confident smile on her face and winking at him. If he wouldn’t hurt all over then he would have jumped at the spot, like a cat scared of cucumber.

 

“Just you wait, sunshine!”

 

* * *

 

Niles’ case got filed as mistreatment by the hands of his guardians and their custody over him got stripped off from them. His case would be brought to court too and because his medical record said more than a thousand words about his time there they wouldn’t need Niles to be present. Or so the lawyer lady with the dollylocks had told him.

 

Due to his injuries, he couldn’t be sent to another foster home yet. The chances of an infection were too high and adding the loss of his eye to his traumatic experiences would be irresponsible. At least doctor Lissa had said so, as the one in charge of his treatment. He was pretty sure the thing about his eye was just a big, fat lie, since lying is was what adults could do best, but… when she said it he almost wanted to believe her. Almost.

 

Despite that his eye was still bandaged, Niles was free to stroll through the hospital whenever he liked. The hallways were long, bursting with life during the day, at night it felt eerie to walk through them due to the silence. The only exception where he was supposed to stay in his room was when it was time for his checkup. But he didn’t like those at all, didn’t like it when his eye was being looked at and he couldn’t see a thing. That his right eye was to be forever blind unsettled him still. Whenever it was time for his checkup, he went hiding.

 

It was such a moment when he hid in an empty waiting room, nibbling one of the cookies the doctor had brought him.

 

“Hospital food isn’t bad, but it tastes like nothing most of the time, doesn’t it?”, is what she had told him when she first started to bring him lunch. It had become a daily thing at some point and… it wasn’t _that_ bad. At least it was better than the hospital food. A lot better.

 

His feet dangled from his seat, swaying slowly. If he waited for longer then maybe his checkup would be postponed. He knew it was for his own good, but it made him feel unwell. Once the doctor said he’s okay, he would be sent away again…

 

“Why, hello there~!”

 

His trail of thought got interrupted by being called out. Startled he almost dropped the remains of his cookie, believing it to be one of the nurses who went to search for him. His running away from the checkups had become a game of hide and seek at this point, but even when found, it wouldn’t stop him from running.

 

This time it wasn’t one of the nurses though. There stood a white-haired, pale man in front of him, dressed completely in black and smiled at him. It had something… unsettling about it.

 

“I didn’t think there would be someone else waiting at my favorite spot! Oh well, company is always nice, isn’t it?” The man let himself drop into a seat, leaving a gap of one seat between them.

 

Niles stared at him warily and leaned away from him, but the man’s smile didn’t falter. If Death was a person, he wondered if it would look like this guy.

 

“You see, I’m going to meet with my wife here, but something came up!” He drew in the air with a pointed finger, not looking like he gave a care in the world about Niles feeling uncomfortable around him. And meeting someone at the hospital? What a weirdo is this guy? “One of her patients seems to be on the run! You didn’t happen to see anyone running away, did you?”

 

At that Niles swallowed. There hadn’t been an alarm ringing so he couldn’t mean one of the grownups… which only left him. He hadn’t seen any other children who weren’t infants, so it had to be him.

 

Yet that doctor Lissa had such a strange guy as husband was a mystery to him.

 

“Nooo…” Niles tried to sound as innocent as possible, keeping his eyes on his cookie. “Aww, too bad! Oh well, looks like I have to entertain myself until they find them!” The white-haired man got up again, that smile of his hadn’t faltered at all. “Do you want to play pranks on the staff with me? Some of these guys really need to loosen up and get the stick out of their asses!”

 

Was this guy for real? And he swore in front of him without a hint of regret or embarrassment for having done so in front of a kid on top. Maybe he wasn’t that bad. An odd-ball, yes, but that aside… “I’m Henry, and you?” The hand that had been drawing shapes into the air was held out to him and Niles’s own reached out slowly to take it. “Niles.”

 

“Well then, Niles, you’re my accomplice now! Let’s go and cause some mischief! But before we do that, one more thing!” Henry reached into his pockets and produced an eyepatch from it, black like his clothes and a cross in the middle of it. He got down on his knees and put it on him, covering the bandages of his bad eye.

 

“Perfect! Now, off we go!”

 

They did cause a lot of mischief in less than an hour. Both peeked around the corner to look for their next victim. “So, who shall we pick?” Henry looked at his accomplice, who looked back up at him. “See the brown-haired guy? The one who looks like he’d give pebbles as gifts?” The older white-haired prankster nodded in agreement. “Yes, good old Freddy should be laughing more often if you ask me!” The smaller one nodded but before he could say anything someone tapped his shoulder. That someone being doctor Lissa. Niles paled, frozen on the spot. They were busted. Worse, he would get the checkup he had tried to hide from all day.

 

And all Henry did was laugh at her. “Hi darling, we were in the middle of shenanigans and Freddy is next in line!” The boy stared in disbelief, how could he give away their plans just like that?! Traitor! Niles wanted to run for the hills immediately. There wasn’t any scolding though. Only giggles, which were coming straight from doctor Lissa. “Alright, I’ll help you with that, but then I have to check on my runaway patient here,” She winked at him, a smile on her lips.

 

“And that eyepatch looks really cool on you, sunshine!”

 

“… T-thanks, doctor.”

 

Maybe she was actually really nice. Maybe.

 

* * *

 

One week later Niles had to share his room with another kid, maybe seven or eight years old. His name was Leo and he was here because his leg was broken. But Niles had noticed that doctor Lissa looked concerned whenever she looked at Leo. He heard her say once that she didn’t believe that Leo ‘just fell down the stairs, but he won’t open up to her’. Leo didn’t speak much and always had a big, black and purple book in his hands, signalizing that he didn’t want to talk or be talked to. The book looked a bit worn, but the younger boy treated it like some boys his age would treat their favorite toys.

 

Niles thought it wasn’t so different from him when he had come to the hospital all these weeks ago, all alone. Leo wanted to be left alone, tried to be brave on his own. When Leo thought that he slept, Niles could hear him cry, so something had to be wrong just as doctor Lissa had said. He grabbed a box the doctor had brought Niles, cupcakes she had made for him but didn’t like so much because they were too sweet, and sat down next to Leo on his bed. The smaller boy glared at the other at first, but stopped the moment he held out the open box with treats at him.

 

“Those are much better than the food they give you here.”

 

Leo hesitated first but then took a chocolate cupcake from the box. Most of the cream ended up on his face and not inside of his mouth like it had been supposed to. “… Thank you.” Niles ruffled the blonde’s head, who whined in response, pouting at him. He could only laugh as the other tried to look intimidating, which wasn’t the case at all. If anything, then it made him look cute and not as sad as he usually looked when he wasn’t burying his face in his book.

 

It was a slow process of them growing closer. For a boy his age, Leo was very considerate not to ask Niles about his eye. One time he had asked Leo about the book he was always holding onto and Leo had offered Niles to read for him. Not because he thought that Niles was stupid, far from it. He was considering Niles’ condition.

 

Once they had warmed up on each other, one could almost say that they were friends, Leo told Niles what had really happened to him. Someone had pushed him down the stairs at school. And it wasn’t the first time it had happened, but before he never had worse injuries than bruises or scratches. It wasn’t just one person who did these things to him, but a small group. The worst about it was that his home room teacher knew about it all, but because they didn’t like Leo for reasons a child could hardly understand, they just allowed it to happen, turning a blind eye on it.

 

Hearing it made Niles mad. It reminded him of his own situation. Feeling helpless and having no one to turn to. And even the ones you’re supposed to rely on didn’t move a finger to step in… unless the worst case happened. Leo had a family, unlike him, but he didn’t let them help him because he was scared. Even so, Niles wanted to help his new friend. Spending time with Leo had been fun and… interesting. Sometimes it was hard for him to grasp that the blonde was younger than him, but he understood things That not even Niles could. ‘A genius’, is what he heard Leo’s older sister say one time.

 

When Leo’s family came to visit again, Niles took the chance and had doctor Lissa drag him away, at the pretense of his eye hurting out of nowhere. That’s what he had told her at least. He felt sorry for lying to her and making her worry, but when he was sure they were alone he swallowed.

 

“I’m sorry, doctor, my eye doesn’t really hurt. But…” he started and crossed his arms in front of his chest. He wasn’t sure where to begin. Lissa watched him carefully before she spoke up. “… Is it about Leo?” Niles nodded quickly and then told her what Leo had told him. Every little detail.

 

That Leo got bullied. That he cried every night.

 

That he didn’t want the boy ever to be hurt as bad as he had been. That he wanted her to help Leo.

 

Niles didn’t expect to be hugged after that. “Don’t worry, sunshine… Leo can be happy to have such a good friend like you who looks out for him.” Her voice was soothing his worries. If anyone could help Leo, then she could.

 

* * *

 

It was the day Niles would finally leave the hospital, together with his new foster family.

 

He didn’t know what doctor Lissa had said or done but the Leo’s family had offered to take him in. Henry had told him that Leo and his siblings had been talking to their father about him. Niles had been asked if he wanted to come to them by Leo and his siblings and his father as well. An intimidating and strict man, but he seemed to hide a softer side, at least that’s the impression Niles had gotten whenever he watched them walk back to their car.

 

He agreed to it. Mostly because that meant that he could keep an eye on his friend. His first real one, that is.

 

However, being taken in by Leo’s family meant that he would have to say goodbye to doctor Lissa. Henry had assured him that this wasn’t a farewell, because you always met twice in life, so he hadn’t said goodbye to Niles but ‘see you soon’, as he always did. While Leo’s father filled the necessary papers to take Niles with them, Leo waited for him as the older boy went to look for the one who made all this possible.

 

The one who saved him.

 

Once he found her, he hesitated to call her out.

 

“… Doctor Lissa?” She quickly turned around to face Niles, surprise written all over it. This was the first time that Niles had called her by her name and not just by her title. And her surname was too hard to remember. His feet shuffled at the spot, he tried to look at her and not face the ground, although it was suddenly a lot more interesting. “Yes, sunshine?” Her voice was filled with so much warmth and love, so happy. That happiness of hers was infectious. Even though he knew that this is goodbye.

 

“Why did you help someone like me?”

 

A problem child like him, unloved, who no one had wanted, not even his real parents, and got tossed around like a plaything until they grew bored of him.

 

She stepped closer and knelt in front of him to be on the same level, but it made her smaller than him when she was like this. Her slender arms wrapped themselves around his frame, not as malnourished as it had been weeks ago, when he had gotten here. She always gave such warm hugs. He loved them. Lissa had pulled away to look at him, a smile adorning her lips, like it did almost all the time and winked at him. She also did that often. “You see, I have a son who is around the same age as you. And as a mother I wouldn’t have been able to forgive myself if I hadn’t helped you.”

 

Niles understood it now. She didn’t help him just because she had to as a doctor. She helped him at her own volition. Watched over him like a mother would. Small arms threw themselves around her and he started to cry, unable to stop the tears from flowing, his sobbing gross and loud enough to wake everyone in the hospital.

 

He would never forget her for as long as he lived.

 

* * *

 

Niles paced around the room with his arms crossed over his chest. Odin, no, Owain, Odin Dark was his pen name as an author and he should finally get used to calling him by his actual name. But Odin is what he got to know him as, he was just grateful that the other was so relaxed when it came to that. Although, he was more than sure that his boyfriend had a roleplaying kink. What they did in bed wasn’t what was giving him troubles though, if he ever were to have troubles there then it would be a sign for the world ending soon.

 

But that wasn’t the point. It was far worse than that.

 

Owain had said that his parents would be coming around for a visit and they wanted to meet Niles too while they were at it. Take the chance to meet their son’s ‘muse’ while they were in town, that’s what Owain’s father apparently said to him. Being nervous was an understatement, even though his lover had assured him that they would love him and that Niles would love them too and that they would be one big and happy family. He had talked about it as if it had already been cast in stone, but if you asked Niles then it had yet to be decided.

 

It was still a miracle to him that Owain got along with his little brother, for some reason. Then again, it was easy, Leo and Owain both were huge nerds and once they had found something they both liked they had gotten along. Leo had given his blessing to their relationship long before they had started calling it that. ‘Being with someone like Owain will do you good,’ Leo had told him when Niles brought up their newly established relationship, at the time.

 

“For the love of gods, Niles, stop pacing around the room like a panther in a cage!” Owain had gotten up from his spot on the couch eventually and cupped Niles’ face in his hands. “Honestly, I don’t get how you can stay so calm, sunshine.” He sighed and leaned into the touch of his lover. Owain smiled widely at him and it made him feel a lot calmer already. That smile always worked like magic, no matter what. “I don’t know to be honest, but it’s instinct, I guess? I just have a feeling that everything will work out just perfectly.” Just as Niles wanted to make a remark on his boyfriend’s gut feeling and sneak a kiss from him, the doorbell rang and the blonde rushed towards the front door like an overexcited puppy screaming in with his best excited voice. “They’re here!” A chuckle escaped Niles’ lips and was followed by a sigh and he straightened himself, taking one last look in the mirror.

 

Niles had stopped wearing the eyepatch Henry had gifted him as he grew older, but he had kept it with him always. His right eye had turned cloudy over the years, but since he started dating Owain he stopped wearing colored contact lenses. Not that he cared about what other people said, but he wanted to be open with Owain’s parents when he faced them. He has come a long way in the past fourteen years and he was proud of what has become of him.

 

Niles let Owain have his chit-chat with his mother as they stood in the hallway and for some reason he couldn’t help but think that her voice sounded… very familiar. Warm and cheerful. Curiosity won over his nervousness as he walked to them.

 

“You know how your dad is when he gets excited over something, but he promised to come here right after! So, where are you hiding your special someone?” Owain’s mother asked her son, winking at him with a smile on her face.

 

“He should be in the living room,” Owain said smiling widely and with a blush coloring his cheeks.

 

“We shouldn’t let him wait-! Oh.”

 

Niles stood at the end of the hall, staring at Owain and his mother, who in return stared at him. A petite frame, wild, blonde hair with streaks of white that had joined, tied into pigtails and big, green eyes that now had wrinkles at the corners, but did not shine any less as when they did back then. A bright smile bloomed on her lips and she winked at Niles.

 

Owain looked between the two of them, not quite getting what was going on, however Niles had been quick to walk over to them and wrapped his arms around the smaller blonde before his beloved had any chance to ask, a wide smile on his face. She giggled and pet Niles back, at least what she could reach of him.

 

“… It’s been ages, doctor Lissa.”

 

“It has, sunshine.”

**Author's Note:**

> This was an idea that started with a friend of mine and me talking about an AU with Niles and Owain/Odin, to which I won't give any info of other than what you're all reading here, yet, because it may or may not end up here as a fanfiction on Ao3 as well. But nothing is set in stone.
> 
> I haven't written fanfiction before, so I hope I wrote this somewhat okay and that there are people who will like this.


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